Card Range To Study

44 Cards in this Set

people believed to have established the earliest settlement in the Americas in what is now present-day Mexico between 1200 BC and 100 BC

military

having to do with armed forces

Pacific Northwest

the northwestern portions of North America, especially that area from Alaska, through Canadian British Columbia and into the states of Washington, Oregon, and northern California

village

a small settlement

Hohokam

a farming society who are best known for building hundreds of miles of irrigation canals between AD 800-1000; lived in what is now present-day Arizona

reservoir

a large place used to store water

Toltecs

people who ruled a strong civilization in the Mexican highlands about AD 900; this civilization covered the areas of present-day Belize, parts of Guatemala, Hondural, El Salvador, and Mexico

kachina

spirits of an ancestor

burial mounds

mounds built into the Earth containing small log rooms where the Adena and Hopewell peoples buried their dead

tobacco

a plant that some people smoke or chew

Ice Age

a period of time when much of the Earth's water was frozen

Mogollon

a farming society who built their civilization in what is now present-day southeastern Arizona and southern New Mexico

Anasazi

a civilization which began around 100 BC in an area where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet, as well as along the Rio Grande River and upper Pecos valleys of New Mexico; these people were called "cliff dwellers" because they built their houses into cliffs; they were also a farming society

dwelling

a home

caribou

a large deer that lives in Arctic regions

kiva

a large underground room used for ceremonies

Aztecs

a civilization believed to have descended from Toltec and nomadic ancestors; the capital of their society was located near present-day Mexico City; around AD 1200, they ruled a large kingdom in what is now central and southern Mexico

religious

relating to a belief in a higher being

glacier

a large body of slowly melting, slowly moving ice

canal

a human-made waterway

Cahokia

an area near present-day Collinsville, Illinois that was a major trade center for the Mississippians; where Middle Mississippians built Monks Mound, a structure that was 100 feet high, covered 16 acres of land, and was the largest object build of earth north of Mesoamerica

mesa

a flat-topped height

settlement

a place or region newly settled

artisan

a skilled worker

Incas

a civilization in southern Peru about 10,000 BC which later spread include all of present-day Peru, parts of Ecuador on the north and parts of Chile and Argentina on the south

burial

the act of burying the dead

Mesoamerica

the area of land that includes what is now present-day Mexico and other countries south of Mexico through Costa Rica

Mayans

a large civilization in Mesoamerica about AD 250; covered the present-day areas of Belize, parts of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico; civilization lasted for at least 600 years; its people were masters in astronomy and architecture

archaelogist

one who studies the remains of past human life

ritual

the actions that take place during a ceremony

astronomy

the study of space and the planets

irrigation

a system for watering crops that uses canals or ditches of water

Clovis point

a finely flaked stone spearhead

totem pole

a tall, colorful carved object that had a certain religious meaning

Beringia

a thousand-mile-wide land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska

descendent

one who comes from a group of people

architect

a person skilled in designing buildings

cotton

a plant used to make cloth

cultivate

to grow crops

civilization

a high level of cultural development

hieroglyphic

a system of writing that uses picture-like symbols

nomads

people who do not live in one place; wanderers

Plains Indians

originally nomadic peoples who did later develop villages and trade with others